Event: Surrealist Topographies

Surrealist Topographies

At the Maison Française in Oxford

15th April 2016, 1.45-6.30pm

Organised by Nathalie Aubert and Eric White, Oxford Brookes University

The main aim of this symposium is to create an understanding of the Surrealist movement as a network and explore its topographies. For a long time, phrases like the ‘British literary diaspora’ have been used to describe ‘the great flight of writers from England’ in the 1920s and 30s, rather than there being an alternatively-viewed sense offered of the active quest for engagement with the continent. Most of these artists headed for the Continent, thus creating a bridge between a number of European capitals (among other destinations). It was not a one-way bridge however: the two wars for example were responsible for the arrival of refugee European intellectuals in London, who were influential in changing the artistic landscape of the Uk’s capital. This symposium hopes to provide an opportunity to examine Surrealism and its engagement in London, Paris and Brussels, and seeks to explore the extent to which interactions between artists and poets in England, France and Belgium produced a range of practices with a common core. As an interdisciplinary, multilingual event it brings together literary and visual arts experts from Britain and overseas to map the transnational contours of Surrealist theory and practice.

The symposium is free to attend but registration is essential. A limited number of travel bursaries will be made available to postgraduate delegates; if you wish to be considered for one then please provide a 2-sentence description of your Doctoral or Masters’ project with your registration email.